


Hey Young Blood

by FreshBrains



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Divergent Fusion, Backstory, F/F, Female Friendship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, MCU AU Fest, Minor Violence, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV Alternating, Past Child Abuse, Protectiveness, Sparring, Tattoos, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 14:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4183059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreshBrains/pseuds/FreshBrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By their third day of training, Maria knows that she and Natasha are the ones to beat amongst the new Dauntless members.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hey Young Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> Hey there! Hope you enjoy this. I had a ton of fun writing it! There are a few giftee-specific notes at the end. 
> 
> This takes place before _Divergent_ canon and includes no characters from Roth's books, only MCU characters. Maria and Natasha are both hinted at being divergent, but at this point, it's kept very hush-hush, like when Four did his test. I'd imagine Maria and Nat would be adults by the time Tris comes along.
> 
> Some MCU ages are altered a bit, since I needed a few older Dauntless members, but they'd only be five or so years older than Maria and Natasha.
> 
> Title is from Fall Out Boy's "Phoenix."

Maria clings to the side of the train, the metal hot and dirty on her bare hands. She can taste coal exhaust in the back of her throat and feel dust in her ears, and the wind whips her Amity-loose hair into a tangled frenzy.

The other new Dauntless kids are whooping and hollering, making a racket with the older members goading them on, but Maria just closes her eyes and hangs on tight, the rumble of the train tracks shaking her bones.

 _You’re Dauntless now,_ Maria thinks to herself, edging away tears of pride. _Don’t be afraid to be angry. Don’t be afraid of conflict._

_You’re Dauntless now._

*

For Natasha, being in Candor was a nightmare from the very beginning. Her parents weren’t Candor before they died; they were homeless and Factionless, dying from pneumonia in the old Chicago streets. She would’ve gone to Abnegation like the other Factionless orphans if not for Ms. Underwood, the icy old Erudite-born headmistress of the girls’ orphanage on the edge of Candor.

Natasha figured she’d end up Factionless someday. It didn’t really bother her—if anything, she knew how to survive. She was wanted by Candor for a reason, and that reason was honesty.

They liked to beat it out of her—not physically, no, but with arched eyebrows and pointed looks, with words spit out like poison.

_“Nobody wanted you, Natasha. We only took you because you’re an asset.”_

_“We saved you from being Factionless. We believe you owe us for this.”_

_“You’re useless. You’re childish. You’re stubborn. If you make us regret this, you’ll be back on the streets.”_

Then came the Truth Serum.

In the end, all Ms. Underwood and the rest of the Candor leaders taught her was how to lie through her teeth. When it came to politics in Candor, Natasha saw how they thrived on viciousness rather than honesty. They mistook their barbs for truths, which Natasha knew would be their greatest downfall in the end. So she spoke with them—harsh words, cruel words, words that brought down the other Factions. All lies. She didn’t want to hurt the other Factions, and she certainly didn’t care about her own.

By the time she lied her way through life and turned sixteen, she knew exactly where she was going. She was going to the Faction that would allow both self-preservation and harmless hurt.

She was going to be Dauntless.

*

When Maria was eight years old, she stopped eating her fruits and vegetables. She hated it at first, since she saw the food grow from seeds to plump, ripe pickings right before her eyes and knew how delicious they tasted, but there was a tiny part of her that grew distant and hazy whenever she ate, and she knew she didn’t like it.

Instead, she lived off the boxed crackers and rice from the cupboards and the cans of soup in the cellar. Her mother didn’t notice; she was too busy in the fields, and besides, Maria never gave her a reason to worry. Amity children rarely did.

Within a week, Maria knew something was wrong with her Faction.

She wandered through the maze of cornfields, hands brushing the stiff green stalks, the sunlight warm on her hairline. _This is wrong,_ she thought, listening to the field-hands’ empty singing. _Something is wrong here._ Their smiles looked alarming to her, like they were melting into their faces, and their words came out too high and too bright. She saw happiness, serenity, and peace—but it was wrong.

It was all _fake_.

At eight years old, little Maria Hill knew she was not meant for Amity.

She knows she doesn’t really fit into Dauntless—at least not like so many of the others do. She has no desire to be tattooed or pierced; she prefers her leather to be functional rather than decorative. She won’t put up her fists until they’re absolutely needed.

And sometimes, all she wants is to sit down with a good book for half a second of peace and quiet.

But she knows she can be comfortable with them. She’s never been less sure of herself than the short time after her aptitude test—she felt she both belonged and didn’t belong in _all_ of the Factions. When she told her test administrator this, he gave her a hard glare through his one eye, the other hidden behind a leather eye-patch. “Don’t let that leave this room,” he warned, hand clutching her wrist. “But when it comes time to choose, I think we both know where you’re going.”

Nick Fury didn’t have any tattoos that she could see, but he was definitely Dauntless.

By the time Maria raised her bleeding hand over the bowl of hot coals, she knew she made the right decision.

*

Natasha doesn’t talk much to the older Dauntless members as they herd them like cattle through the underground tunnels. None of them stick out enough to raise her alarm bells. One guy, Matt, is quiet and stern, and he shoves one of the other guys away when he starts teasing one of the new girls. When he closes his eyes, she can see behind his red-tinted glasses that he’s got eyes tattooed over the lids.

At least Dauntless has a sense of humor.

Their instructor, May, is compact and stern, her hair in a jet-black wave down her back. When Natasha makes eye contact with her and holds it, May nods curtly before looking away. Natasha likes her instantly.

“We lost three of our best today,” a guy says from her left, slinging an arm around Natasha’s shoulder. She stiffens for a moment, but the guy just grins down at her, smile easy and kind. He’s wearing a hearing aid and has an arrow tattooed around his thick bicep. “Jane went to Erudite. Pepper and Steve went to Abnegation. You better not disappoint us, kid.”

“Don’t forget about Loki, Clint” someone jeers from the crowd, and the older Dauntless erupt in boos and laughter. “He hauled his ass to Candor.”

“Good riddance,” Clint mutters, arm still around Natasha. “So, why Dauntless?”

Natasha shrugs his arm off, keeping her eyes trained forward. “It was better than being the biggest liar in Candor.”

“Ah, a truth-baby,” Clint says mock-sagely. “We get a lot of you in here. But a lot of you can’t cut it.”

“If jumping off a train is the hardest thing I’ll do today, I think I’ll be fine,” Natasha snaps. “How about I let you see for yourself if I really am Dauntless?”

Clint raises an eyebrow and backs off, though he’s still smiling. “Fair enough.”

A girl to Natasha’s right snorts out a laugh, and she doesn’t look fazed when Natasha turns sharply to glare at her. She just glares right back, brown eyes big and honest.

“I’m Maria,” she says, and falls into step next to Natasha. She’s still wearing her hair long down her back, her red skirt and tank top baggy and shapeless.

“Got sick of singing songs and getting high?” Natasha feels shitty about saying it right away—she supposes she still has a little Candor left in her yet.

Maria snorts again. “It gets old after a while. Hey, listen. I know we’re not friends or anything, but you’re one of the only other new girls in Dauntless, and I need your opinion on something.”

“Okay,” Natasha says, only hesitating a little. She’s never had close female friends before. The other girls in the Candor orphanage were just as cold-blooded as her.

Maria nods to the front of the group. “The guy with the metal arm. Does he rub you the wrong way?”

Natasha follows Maria’s gaze to a built guy with a short brown ponytail and an impressive prosthetic arm beneath his black shirt. Something about him looks a little familiar, but she can’t put her finger on it. Unlike the other Dauntless guys, he’s stoic and straight-backed, seeming far away from the merriment. “I don’t know. Looks like a ticking time bomb to me.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I might be from Amity, but I know how new girls are treated in every Faction. Do you want to stick together?” Her voice isn’t friendly; it’s pragmatic and smooth, down to earth in a way Natasha’s not used to. She trusts it.

“Sounds like a plan,” Natasha says, sticking out her hand as they continue their descent into Dauntless headquarters. Maria returns the handshake, grip firm and warm.

*

By their third day of training, Maria knows that she and Natasha are the ones to beat among the new Dauntless members. Natasha’s quick and strong, her body easily weaving under punches and around kicks, and she seems to feel no pain, no matter how hard a blow. She bounces back from bloody noses and broken fingers like she hardly notices them, which is more than even some of the older Dauntless members can say.

“Good girl,” May mutters from the sidelines when Natasha manages to send Rumlow flat on his back on the mat with a well-placed kick to the chest. There’s a hint of a smirk on her lips, like she’s wanted to do that to Rumlow herself for quite some time.

Maria smiles as if the praise was directed to her. She likes Natasha more and more as the days go by, and she learns something new about her every day. She knows Natasha hates the dark but can sleep through any amount of noise. She has a dry sense of humor that nobody but Maria has really picked up on. And she’s fiercely loyal to the new Dauntless kids, even though she doesn’t like to show it.

“You’re up, Hill,” May says, giving Maria a gentle push.

Matt’s on the training platform, hands wrapped in tape. Maria has seen his fighting style and she tries to shake off a hint of worry; he’s got reflexes like a cat and can take a punch even better than Natasha. But she’s not afraid of him. He’s a kind man, the sort of man who would probably do well in Amity if given the chance.

 _He was born Amity,_ Maria realizes with a start as she stands on the platform, and a fist connects with her jaw before she can even try to dodge it.

“Come on, Hill, I know you’re better than this,” Matt says, holding out an elbow to help her up. She ignores it and pulls herself off the ground, jaw aching with pain.

“Don’t be nice to me because we came from the same Faction,” she says bluntly, surprising herself. She jabs out hard to the left and Matt dodges it easily. He tries to go for her left side but she’s learning to track his movements—in lieu of glancing, he tics his head a little when he’s planning a blow.

“I’m nice to you because I like you,” Matt says, and lands a solid kick to Maria’s ribs.

She yells out in pain, body flaring with anger. “I’m not here to be liked,” she snaps, and something inside her snaps along with it. She’s not a strong kicker but her fists always land hard, and when she connects with Matt’s right cheek, the force making his head snap back, she flushes with pride. “I’m here to be brave.”

“You’re succeeding,” Matt says, and drops his hands, calling off the match.

Maria continues her training, but she’s never put up against Matt again.

*

The only other new Dauntless girl is a skinny, wild-eyed little thing named Skye. Born Erudite, she’s a fountain of babbling knowledge, but she seems to succeed best in the gossip department. Natasha supposes that’s reason enough to keep her around, even though she sort of likes the girl’s optimism as well.

“Skye, do you know who that guy is?” Natasha nods towards the older Dauntless with the metal arm. He’s eating alone at the end of the table, Clint and May sitting a few seats down.

Maria follows her gaze, chewing idly on her food. Natasha rarely goes without Maria at her side, and neither of them would have it any other way. Maria works with her fluidly. They think the same way, fight the same way. And she can make Maria laugh.

Skye leans in, hair brushing Natasha’s arm. “Oh, yeah. That’s Bucky Barnes. He’s a few years older than us. I heard he’s really cranky because his best friend ditched Dauntless for Abnegation.”

“Steve Rogers,” Maria muses, nodding. “That’s what I heard. They were inseparable.”

“Rogers was bad-ass, but he wasn’t built for Dauntless.  Too skinny and sick.” Skye digs into her food, glancing over at one of the older guys, Grant Ward, a few tables down. “Man, he’s so cute. Do you think I have a chance?”

Natasha rolls her eyes. “Come on, focus. What’s Bucky’s story? He looks at us sometimes. It’s weird.” Natasha doesn’t get a sexual vibe from him. He doesn’t bother them in the bunks or showers, and he never gets too close. But his stare in intense and he never smiles.

“He looks at _you_ , Nat,” Maria says uneasily, nudging Natasha’s arm.

“I know,” Natasha says, and leans into Maria’s warm space. Maria’s good at supplying comfort—she knows just when to go in or back off.

Skye gives them both a pointed look. “I knew there was something going on between you two.”

Maria snorts, and Natasha rolls her eyes again. “So was Bucky born Dauntless, or what?”

“No. He was born in Candor,” Skye says, mouth full of food.

Natasha frowns, and suddenly, she’s three years old and crying in the streets, foraging for garbage with the older children. There’s a young brunette boy with the Candor crowd, small but stern, glaring at them from the sidewalks.

He’s holding onto Ms. Underwood’s hand.

*

“He was born Candor,” Natasha says softly, burying her face in Maria’s neck. She can’t get the words out of her head. “He knew about all the shit they did to me and the other kids. He’s a coward.”

“Hey,” Maria says softly, scratching her nails gently down Natasha’s spine. Her bunk isn’t big enough for the two of them, but they make it work. “He’s Dauntless now. He changed because he was _brave_ , right?”

Natasha sits up to look at Maria. “But he knew I was there. He escaped it all because he could, and he never came back to get us.” Natasha knew she was being unfair, but justice took a backseat to her anger for the time being. She never even saw Bucky around the orphanage or in the interrogation rooms, but she heard about him plenty, the way he rounded up new boys and girls for Ms. Underwood’s care. They called him the Winter Soldier.

Maria bites her lip and strokes Natasha’s hair. A part of her wants to lean in and kiss Natasha, let her know she’s loved, but she still can’t read Natasha well enough to tell if that would be welcome or not. “Maybe he was a victim too. Maybe he _had_ to escape to avoid becoming just like Underwood.”

Natasha sighs, deep and heavy, and leans back into Maria’s arms. “I don’t even know anymore. I don’t know what it means to be Dauntless.”

Maria nods, and with her heart hammering in her chest, presses a tiny kiss to the base of Natasha’s neck. Natasha doesn’t pull away, doesn’t make a sound. “We’re still figuring it out,” Maria says. “We’ve got time.”

*

During supper one night, Bucky comes to their table and sits down next to Natasha.

Maria glares at him sharply, dropping her fork into her food. “Can we help you?”

The entire hall goes quiet, voices hushing to hear what Bucky wants with the new girls. Maria holds her stare, and with one hand, reaches across the table. Natasha grasps her hand, squeezing once with tight fingers.

“I’m here for Nat,” Bucky says, voice hardly above a whisper. His lank hair covers his eyes. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. Not anymore.”

“I bet,” Maria bites. She’s still not used to letting that timbre into her voice, that low growl of protection she slides into whenever someone gets in Natasha’s face.

“O- _kay,_ ” Skye says from Maria’s left, getting up slowly. “I’m going to go be somewhere that’s not here.”

“Maria,” Natasha says softly, looking at her through her lashes. Her face is serious, but not frightened. “I’ll be fine. Let him talk.”

Maria nods, but doesn’t make an attempt to move.

She’ll stay by Natasha’s side, no matter what.

*

The next day, Natasha and Maria go down to the tattoo parlor, where Maria is surprised to see Nick Fury bent over someone’s back, the tattoo gun buzzing in his hand.

“He was my admin,” Maria whispers, leaning towards Natasha. Their hands are linked between them, fingers entwined. They’d been that way ever since the night before when Bucky came to Natasha, voice shaking, eyes ashamed.

“Lucky,” Natasha says. “Mine was one of the Candor leaders. Said I needed to watch my back because I wasn’t a good fit for _any_ Faction.” There was a newfound steadiness in her voice, a confidence Maria saw right away when she and Bucky shook hands. She wasn’t worried anymore—she was learning that victims of Candor’s orphanage program came in all different sizes, including little boys who were given metal arms in exchange for hard words.

Maria smiles. She doesn’t tell Natasha that Fury told her the exact same thing; she won’t bring it up yet. It still doesn’t settle well with her, and she knows there’s others out there like them, waiting for the right day to bring it into the light.

“Fresh meat,” Nick says from his chair as he wipes up the client, whose back is almost covered in ink. “Come on in. I don’t bite.” He gives Maria a small nod in recognition.

They sit down in chairs next to one another, still not wanting to give up each other’s hand. As Nick prepares the tools and ink, Natasha sits up to look at Maria. “Hey. I want to do something before we do this, okay?”

Maria nods, brow furrowed. They knew right away what they were both going to get; it hadn’t been a difficult decision after they went back to the bunks the night before and held one another for hours, just sharing each other’s space. _Is she having second thoughts?_

Natasha smiles and leans over, sitting on the edge of the chair. She tucks her red hair behind her ears. “Tell me if this isn’t okay,” she says, and cups Maria’s cheek in her hand. Maria closes her eyes and meets Natasha halfway, their lips pressing together warm and quick and easy, like they’d been doing it for years.

“It’s so okay,” Maria says, lips grazing Natasha’s.

*

“Okay, new girls,” Clint says, buckling the last of the straps on Natasha’s harness. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay if you’re separated for ten seconds?”

The Dauntless crowd whistles and hollers, but Maria just flips them the bird. She kisses Natasha on the cheek. “Meet you on the other side, okay?”

Natasha gives her a wry smile and squeezes her hand. Their tattoos touch at the wrist, the skin still sensitive where the inked red-and-black phoenixes wrap around their wrists and up to their forearms. _Born again,_ Natasha murmured as they walked to the parlor before getting them. _From Amity and Candor to Dauntless._

 _And never going back,_ Maria had finished.

Natasha looks down where their arms touch and licks her lips, smile always so sly and mysterious and always enough to get Maria’s heart racing. “Always.”

As Natasha zooms down the zip-line in the dark city night, Maria watches and feels something swell in her heart, something that’s definitely love, something that might be mixed with a little bit of bravery.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if you've seen _Daredevil_ yet, but Matt Murdock makes an appearance, though you don't need to know any show canon for it to make sense. He's just my little puppy right now and I needed him in there. Same with Dottie Underwood from _Agent Carter_ , but she's only mentioned. 
> 
> Again, I hope you like it! <3


End file.
